Argo

2012 – 4/5

The day I saw this movie: December 13, 2012.
The day I wrote the review: January 8, 2013.

It has taken me almost a month to write this review, and within the last couple of days I was wondering as to why that was. What it comes down to, is that I wanted to write a review that was as good as the movie itself. I kept putting it off because I felt like it would take a lot of time to write. I guess I had the idea that I’d have to analyze every aspect thoroughly in order to write a review that truly got what was in my head, out in text.

When I first heard about this movie; a [based on a] true story about American’s being taken hostage by Iranians in the late 1970s, with the main story surrounding the 6 that escaped and took refuge in the Canadian Embassy(?), it immediately went to the top of my to-see list and stayed there till the day I saw it.

This movie had a trio of actors (Alan Arkin, John Goodman and Bryan Cranston) that have been at the top of the game for the last decade or so. That alone makes it worth watching. They are all such incredible actors, and it’s movies like this that really makes them shine. It was a movie rich with character and the actors were perfect.

The cherry on top however, is that not only is Ben Affleck the main character in this movie, he directed it as well. Since Affleck started his directing career, he has earned the right to be at the top. And lets face it, with every movie, he’s gotten better and better (although I will admit that I liked The Town a tad bit more than this movie, and Gone Baby Gone finishing off the list).

I really want to write a review that is free of politics that exists between Iran and America. But this entire movie is pretty much the poster child of the dislike for each country for the other. I’m going to throw this out there, and this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, but this movie does a have huge bias. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not making any attempt to justify what the Iranians did, but lets face it, it is a movie that came out of Hollywood, USA.

A few points I wanted to mention:

-At first I didn’t know what I thought of the cartoon drawings (at the beginning of the movie) that explained how the situation came to be, but once the drawings for the fake movie ‘Argo’ were shown, I felt as if it did tie into the movie.

-There were a lot of close ups of Affleck’s face and usually I’m not a fan of that. In this case, I did like it because I think it added to the movies intensity and Affleck’s character. To me it showed how he had to keep a straight face and his emotions in check during such a stressful situation.

-This movie had a subtly great script. The dialogue wasn’t something that really stands out, but once you take a minute to look back, you realize that it had a solid screenplay (my favourite line being “You can Argo fuck yourself!”).

-There is a Locked Up Abroad episode on the National Geographic Channel based on this ordeal. Check it out!